Finding a convenient, healthy snack can be difficult in workplaces and schools where fruit trees are long gone and the best on offer now comes from a vending machine stuffed with junk. In this troubled economic times, many schools are forced to shut down their cafeteria services and replace them with rows of vending machines.

Our gadgets will eventually break or get replaced. But it's hard to know just what to do with the gadgets that get left behind. Some people stuff them in junk drawers. Most people won't simply junk their car -- they'd trade it in. Why can't that same school of thought apply to electronics?

Anyone who has had a child in high school, one that goes to proms and formal affairs, knows how expensive these activities can be. The costs involved have become so high some families cannot afford for their daughter or son to attend. Fortunately, there are organizations and volunteers across America that collect gently used dresses, gowns, and formal attire and make them available for free to kids who otherwise might not be able to go to their proms.

Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Some people will take adult bikes and frames, refurbish or converting them into wheelchairs for people in developing countries

Our current school systems are threats to our children’s health, models of unsustainability, and significant contributors to society’s broader environmental and health problems. However, they could provide a healthy environment for students and staff, while promoting ecological sustainability. Although there are plenty of schools out there with green practices among their goals, ones with entrepreneurially green from top to bottom are only slowly appearing.

Concrete is the most widely-used construction material with over ten billion tons produced annually. About 7% of global CO2 emissions come from concrete production. The primary source of these emissions generated by concrete manufacturing is Portland cement, responsible for about 77% of total CO2 emissions. Now a sustainable substitute for concrete is being developed by civil engineer Dr. John Forth from the School of Engineering, University of Leeds, in the UK.